It had been a long road to get to this point. First had been running around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to find help. Then came the actual application of medicine to try and heal the damage Princess Shuri had taken. Finally, there was waiting.

Bucky had been more or less okay during those first two- save a little bit willing to die to heal Shuri. Or. A lot willing. And alright he may have plowed every field he could by sheer force of muscle as he waited for the verdict- but the most important part was that he was surviving. He was told that she'd almost certainly wake up in a week.

It was after the week ended that he stopped being okay in any way shape or form. All he did was combat train, endlessly. He had to be better, when Shuri was on her own two feet again, Bucky had to be able to protect her.

And actually protect her this time. Not the protection where she got shot and almost died in his arms.

It took until one of the older children sat him down before he bothered fixing the terrible haircut he had given himself. What did his appearance matter if the only person he cared to see him look good was in a seemingly endless coma?

And he became more and more sleep deprived. The darkness that he thought he had mostly conquered, fought back enough that he could sleep in a normal room and not wake up everyone in a mile radius, came back wkth a vengeance. One of the first things he did was soundproof his home. Even windows allowed too much of his screams through.

And one night, when he was finally contained enough that no one came to stop his screams- he broke almost everything in his room. Anything within reach and then some, from the sheer violence of his sleep. It came to the point where the only place he could rest soundly was in the corner of Shuri's hospital room- and that was largely because he sat there and watched her breath until he was physically incapable of keeping his eyes open.

It was incredibly creepy of him, and he was aware of that. It didn't stop him from sneaking back in any time he was kicked out.

It had been two months, five days, and seventeen hours, since Shuri had been shot. When the doctors refused to talk around Bucky, he had done his own research. That after five weeks, the chances of waking up were much slimmer. That a coma caused by lack of oxygen to the brain had a lesser chance of recovery than a number of others.

The final straw had been when he overheard the doctors mumbling about what to do 'if Princess Shuri wakes up.' No longer a when- but an if. He took out the map he had tucked carefully away, and plotted how to steal a princess from a heavily guarded hospital room.

Bucky was abruptly grateful for the training hydra had given him. He was more than capable of getting in through the vents- even if getting someone else was not usually in his job description.

Which brought him to where he was now. Carrying the only person he still loved in the whole of all realities. He was far too aware of how light she was, the pallor of her skin from staying inside for so many weeks, how her eyes appeared slightly sunken, and the wild curls, from when her beautiful braids had to be taken out.

The only part of that that didn't cause him pain was her curls. And everything about her was why he was trekking into the middle of nowhere to do- well- this.

Having reached his destination, he didn't bother setting her down, simply held her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers with the agony that came from knowing he was grasping at straws- and the torture that was the knowledge that if this didn't work, he had nothing left. Not just nothing left to help Shuri- but a total nothing. No Steve, no Howard, no Peggy, no mom, dad, siblings....

There was no time, no real thought, Shuri drifted, unaware of time passing, of the Wakandian design group doctors frantic sleepless nights attempting to stimulate her neural centers, the glow that indicated bureau activity slowly growing as Wakandan tech and magic potions worked on healing her body.

Not fast enough for one man though.

Shuri tasted plums..wet salted plums.

Her lips opened sighing softly as she drank in the oddly intoxicating taste: oh she was being held. That was...nice. Shrui not awake not wanting to wake from this lovely dream where there was strong arms holding her crushingly tight, the scent of rich earth and man, along with plums on her tongue.

A soft humm escaped as she shifted closer wiggling her legs around to weakly (now why did her limbs feel like jelly) around powerful hips.

This was a nice dream, she was going to enjoy it for a while longer til she was forced to wake.

Bucky noticed the small movement of Shuri's lips as she sighed- and for another moment he allowed himself this rudeness. He knew it was wrong to kiss someone when they didn't want it- and Shuri could hardly consent in her state- and it was one thing when he was doing it to wake her...

But if she wasn't going to wake up, Bucky was going to savour this small moment. Where he could close his eyes and pretend that the minor movements of a woman in a coma were that same beautiful being kissing him back.

Before he had to take her back and face the knowledge that he couldn't do anything right. She had made these small movements before. Comas were very quiet but not quite as motionless as movies made them out to be. Her fingers twitched, her eyes fluttered- a small shift of her lips was nothing to be excited about.

Obviously, Bucky hadn't actually passed death's little test. The being just wanted him to suffer. A goal that had succeeded, as tears welled up in his eyes. Somehow he had been dumb enough to believe that he of all people could save the most incredible woman.

Bucky couldn't even save Steve, so why he thought he could save anyone was unbelievably stupid.

He didn't know where to go from here.

Feeling Shuri shift in his arms made the tears actually start rolling down his face- just another twitch he had to remind himself- except....

She wasn't just shifting slightly, she was moving to wrap her legs around his hips, and pressing closer. His eyes snapped open as he took in the sight of hi- (not his, he reminded himself) this sleeping beauty as she woke.

Bucky pulled back from her lips as he took it all in. Her eyes were still closed, but her muscles weren't slack, she wasn't limp in his arms, she had moved with purpose, even if he admittedly didn't understand what that purpose was.

"Shuri." He whispered, voice hoarse from disuse. "Shuri." He called again, louder, before laughing and spinning her around. It had been long enough that it seemed unfamiliar, but he recognized the movements she made when she was awake but was trying to deny that. He kissed her again with joy- before he realized what he was doing and pulled back again, turning bright red.

"Oh I'm sorry- I know you said no when I asked and I don't want to disrespect you, I'm just so happy that you're awake. That I didn't think about what I was doing." He offered as he lowered her to the ground to try and stand (though he still supported most of her weight with an arm around her waist.) "I wasn't... I wasn't sure if you were ever going to wake up." He admitted quietly.

It echoed quietly in his mind that Death told him that true love was his only hope.

Which fit. It didn't have to be returned for Bucky to know it was true. He was in love with Shuri, and miracle of miracles, his love for her was true enough that it didn't matter that she didn't love him. He didn't even care that that meant the only person in the world for him was not going to love him back- he just cared that she was okay. That she was alive and awake.

“Ahhh dizzy!” She whined/whispered nuzzling her face into a warm muscular neck. “Suuush sleeping.” She scolded lifting a dream sluggish hand to his cheek turning it to silence his nattering with her mouth.

Now Shuri was not an expert kisser but this was her dream so clearly she was going full bore with non of the self consciousness that might of otherwise affected her performance if she was actually awake.

Slipping her tongue between his lips she resisted the attempt to drop her, wiggling closer, he’d been muttering something and she didn’t really listen. More involved in chasing the taste of plums. Oh and sliding a lethargic hand under his waistband to grip a handful of the ass that even the Dora had commented on favorably.

Bucky shivered slightly as his princess nuzzled into his neck, momentarily overwhelming his sense of priority. She was speaking- hell. Bucky couldn't help but think that any words she said right then was the greatest music he had ever heard.

And then she was kissing him and he was very very very uncertain what to do. On the one hand he was so desperate to kiss her back- but he was also vaguely aware that it was wrong to take advantage of that when she wasn't all there.

Despite everything his mind was telling him, he groaned into her kiss, his grip shifting to her thighs as he hesitantly kissed back.

Until her hand was under his pants. Jumping slightly, he pulled back from her lips. "Shuri!" He cried out awkwardly, shifting her automatically upwards to try and make this ever so slightly less uncomfortable. "Princess. I'm not sure this is the time." He offered, voice cracking slightly.

Ok that that was good Shuri shuddered chasing the pressure between her thighs greedily.

..only to be brutally ripped away. rude.

The sound that left her was closer to a cat being woken and moved than a princess waking from a coma, “that’s so sad. Alexa play Despacito.”

Now why in the Baset damned hell was her dream man trying to get away? “Nao is the perfect time.” She murmured, sleepy grumpiness pulling her expression into unhappy lines. “Sussh less talk more make outs.” She ordered determination thundering along side arousal, one hand went snaking up under his shirt and the other delved back under his waist band.

And because she was after all a genius and could multitask even in a dream her lips latched onto his neck biting down slightly as she endeavored to leave a reminder behind.

The fact that Shuri was quoting memes was undoubtedly a good sign- even if Bucky was torn between laughter and horror. He was vaguely grateful that there was no voice responding things in the area. Well almost none, as she had programmed the meme into his kimoyo beads which started quietly playing music.

Her grumpiness was more than a little adorable, and Bucky was more than a little- ah- hard pressed to argue with him. His voice was once again husky from her touches, even as he shifted her awkwardly. "I promise you Princess, that if you were awake and properly aware of what you were doing? The last thing I'd be doing is stopping you. Even knowing that your brother would murder me for it."

Her lips latched onto his neck and he lost complete track of what he was saying, letting her slide against him as he lowered her slightly. "Hell, Doll. I wish you were aware what you're doing to me." He groaned.

He growled without thinking, moving forward to nip at her throat from where he could. "How about this? You open your eyes, tell me in detail about what's going on around you, and I will ravish you as much as you still desire at that point."

A single dark eye slitted open, her lips just releasing enough suction to hiss at his stupid talkies that were stopping the touchies.

“Hello stupid white boy.” Her voice was rough with disuse, the hand that had been creeping up his chest pressing into the warmth of him shifted course, snaking down to cup him boldly. “I have a pretty good idea.”

Who the hell said ‘ravish’? she really needed to cut out on the midnight romance novels. Heck it was almost enough to drive her out of the fantasy; luckily she knew what normally kickstarted things when her dream lover got noble-

Her fingers slid around the front of his waist band, sliding in to grip him.

Bucky was more than a little pleased to see Shuri's eyes open, his smile was brilliant and he spun slightly- right up until her hand reached down between his hips and he was forced to try and push her hand away. On the plus side, Bucky was going to have some serious images to enjoy for the rest of forever where Shuri would be completely uninterested in him- in part for having done this to her.

And then her hands bypassed his clothing altogether and wow yeah that was a sensation that he could never recreate in his mind. For the best since he was quite confident that he was far too interested in her and the sensations she was presenting him.

This time, he did reach down and carefully yet tightly grip Shuri's wrist and remove her hand from his pants. Setting her down carefully, Bucky pushed her as far as he could and still help her stand. Desperate to make his brain say something, he was annoyed with himself when his voice went husky. "Princess Shuri, you have been in a coma for two months. I understand your confusion, but I imagine you should wish to see your brother the King right about now."

Shrui was manhandled (also the second his hand closed so firmly around her wrist Shuri had a sudden realization she had a kink. Which wow awkward moment to figure THAT out.)

Ok apparently this was one of the dreams that ended with her frustrated, damn it.

“You are kidding me.” She leaned back on a handy ...tree? Yeah tree, body dream heavy, exhausted and weak. “No I don’t want to see my brother.” Her twisted expression made her disgust clear; WTH subconscious! Not cool!

Bucky breathed a sigh of relief as Shuri backed away. Not because he was uninterested, but because it was so very hard to remember why he was against it when her hands were roaming his body in ways that he had dreamed of far too many times.

Her face made him laugh slightly, even as he shifted his shield down and in front of his crotch to prevent further distraction. "Princess, you aren't dreaming." Bucky offered quietly, waiting for the disgust to shift into mortification as she released this was really happening.

"You are incredibly smart Princess Shuri, you should be able to tell if you are in a dream. It really has been two months since you were-" He swallowed hard, flushing with shame that chased his arousal away. "-It's been two months since you were shot. We were out getting chili, Okoye joined us. We were walking home, and you took a laser bolt to your sternum. You passed out from lack of oxygen, and we've been waiting for you to wake up."

Bucky dodged forwards to try and catch the princess as she fell, this time, like last, managing it just moments after she started falling. He saw the embarrassment and breathed a small sigh of relief that she was at least beginning to process what was really going on.

He helped her sit more carefully, taking a seat beside her. He offered her his robotic hand, something familiar to focus on. "You were shot two months, five days, and seventeen and a half hours ago." He offered quietly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and trailing off. It wasn't normal to know that kind of thing off the top of his head. It wasn't normal to watch her breathing out of the corner of his eyes and count the seconds between each one.

Bucky wasn't normal. There was something very very wrong with him, and it was for the best that he was not Shuri's true love. Because she deserved better than a manic man suffering from ptsd and clinging to her like a life preserver. "The oxygen deprivation put you into a coma, even though we healed your body, you didn't open your eyes."

Blushing rather red, he had a hard time looking her in the eyes. "A... conversation I had with Death, they said if I brought you to this world and -ah- kissed you, you would wake up. Because this is some sort of fairytale world and being a princess, I guess that's enough to wake you up."

That was...a shockingly specific amount of time. Shuri’s eyebrow rose at both the time and the fact that he knew down to pretty much the minute, “Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.” she quipped out the old meme blinking back confusion. Oxygen deprivation...maybe that was why her brain felt like it was on mothballs: slow, fuzzy, and probably funny smelling...or that could be her fingers.

Oh look.

Shuri sighed as strong arms caught her, halting her downward slide, “Wait, Death?” Shuri shook off that question bringing a more urgent one; “OK how do we get home? And-” She looked around confused, “Where is the Dora? Or my Brother?” Or any of the Wakanda Design Group for that matter...

Bucky couldn't appreciate the meme as much as he may have at other times. He was mostly worried about the look of confusion decorating Shuri's lovely features. "I knew you'd be back." He offered in his best joking tone, even if he wanted to stop her from saying such things. He would not have let that be the end of her.

Bucky winced at the questioning, knowing he had to come clean. He had resigned himself to the knowledge that she would hate him for this- but he still wasn't prepared for that. "I ah, may not have told anyone that I was kidnapping you to bring you to a magical realm where a kiss might wake you up. I'm relatively confident Okoye knows, but she knows everything. I just didn't really think a committee was going to let me try- and I didn't want to risk waiting." He explained quietly, his cheeks red and his erection thankfully wilting- even if it was out of guilt.

"But getting home is easy-" He started before he turned towards where the portal had been. Less than an hour ago. "-Or... should have been easy." He swallowed hard, pulling out a knife and marking the tree she was laying under.

"Stay here, I'll do a sweep. See if the portal has just shifted a little."

“You kidnapped me.” Shuri’s eyebrows rose, “You a white man kidnapped an african princess to do nefarious things to.” she just shook her head, “Oh you are soooo dead, not even a little dead just….all the dead. Brother is going to flip his shiiiitttttt.” Shuri was ignoring the part where it had been her trying to get a hand on him and he calmly putting her down which was...actually rather depressing now that she thought about it.

“An’ now you’ve lost the way home.” sliding slowly back to her feet, leaning on the tree Shuri took a closer look at the forest they were now apparently shipwrecked in….on? “Ok. Please tell me you brought any of my gear?” she asked half hopeful half expecting a negative.

Bucky raised his hands in mock surrender, despite a grin that clearly stated he was unapologetic. He wouldn't mind dying for Shuri- even better if it meant that Shuri got to live because of him. Her life was worth so much more than his was- he hadn't even bothered weighing the value. Obviously if he could wake her up before permanent damage was done to her mind, then his life was a no brainer. T'challa could kill Bucky if he wanted. Or perhaps Shuri would order him to jump off a cliff for kissing her. He wouldn't hesitate.

"I was rather hoping that you being awake and well would dissuade him of that." He said instead, not wanting her to feel the weight of his choices.

Nodding easily, he dropped his pack on the ground and pulled a relatively simple communication array. Thing. "I thought you might wish to call your brother in the real Wakanda and tell him you were alive and well after you woke up. And I wasn't sure how far I'd have to wander into this universe." He reached down and pulled out a pudding cup and a water bottle. "Also you should eat and drink, I'm sure you're still feeling weak. This should help."

“You have way to much faith in my abilities colonizer.” Shrui muttered, honest she WAS worried how T’challa and her MOTHER were going to react to this not so little bit of news.

Ignoring the *shudder* pudding cup; Shuri made grabby hands toward the tech, “ok let’s see-“ her excited expression dimmed in a quick second, fingers tapping out a rapid rhythm. “Bastet damn this!” She exclaimed after a few fruitless minutes. “The whole thing is useless!” Even the kimoyo beads around her wrist were severely stunted in ability and she had NO IDEA WHY!

Bucky smiled easily. "I may never have been allowed in the same hemisphere as you Again, but you should know very well that you've got your brother wrapped around your finger. Espe-" He choked on the words slightly, laughing humourlessly as he spoke the truth of the matter.

"Especially when the doctors were beginning to suggest you may never wake." He added softly. He hadn't wanted to tell her that they had been close to giving up. That she would have been left on life support and minimal care, but that their hopes were beginning to die.

He didn't dare tell her that he brought her here, knowing that if it failed and they somehow forgave him anyways, he had been considering asking them to return him to cryo until she woke, or she passed away. Bucky didn't think he could handle years of torture, watching her and desperately praying for every moment to see her wake up.

Bucky raised his hands in serious defense. "I promise I didn't break anything." He offered before digging around in his bag and offering her some saltine crackers instead. Pudding would have been better, easier to eat, but at least the crackers would be unlikely to upset her stomach.

Her mind nor fingers stopped working, taping across the screen, dancing up to her lips, back down as another thought came to her, “The electromagnetic spectrum...it’s not normal. Very not normal-” Worry tightened her expression, “Give me your arm.” she ordered reaching up for the prosthetic. She would have come to her feet to spare him the indignity of being manhandled downwards. Sliding open the small panel that held the field kit she’d designed into the arm for when he was out of her sphere(not that it happened yet!) to perform his own mataniance-

Shuri’s mobile face shut down in concentration, her focus on the precise work, normally she wouldn’t have sweated it so hard, but she was VERY aware that there was no spare parts, no support beyond what she could scavanage, and not even talk about the fact that her hands were shaking faintly. The tremors caused either by fear of the unknown, or simply the fact that she’d been cometous for weeks, and her muscles weren’t used to being ‘awake’ yet.

The offered food would probably helped eventually, but as usual Shuri focused on the problem she needed to solve over the needs of her body.

Sitting back, her eyes sliding shut for a long moment, shuri fought the light headedness that promised relief if she just...let go for a second…

Her hand dropped to her side, a CRACK echoing out, part of the com module shattering. Blindly Shuri lifted a tiny sliver, dark eyes slitting open not to check that her brutal disassembly had revealed her prize but to insert it into toolbay. Watching golden lines of power glimmer faintly up the channels etched into his arm.

“Good.” She smiled, her complexion greying with exhaustion from the slight exertion of the last few minutes. “As long as I have this-” She held up another fragment of vibranium. “We can find each other...or realistically you can find me. I need a power source.”